| Monastic authors in western Francia during the central Middle Ages composed and exchanged Latin verse saints' lives (vitae metricae ) to create communities of saints, emperors, bishops, teachers, and students. These epic poems were sent to patons, excerpted in liturgy, and read in the classroom. By writing vitae metricae, the monks enhanced their own prestige, promoted their saints, flattered their patrons, and aggrandized their abbeys. |
